Quilty Magazine cover feature!

Nancy from Nancy one stitch at a time blog submitted this darling quilt! How amazing to be featured on the cover of a big quilting magazine! Congrats! The quilt is beautiful and the quilting is amazing!  Good work, and congrats to Nancy! Be sure to check out Nancy's blog, she has some amazing quilts going on over there. Talented lady!

I'm up for cover!!!

OH my goodness!! My quilt that I made for Quilty magazine is up for cover!!! I love love love this quilt!! Here is the story behind how this quilt came about.
I have had a few quilts accepted for publication with Fons and Porter ( along with Quilter's World magazine, Quiltmaker magazine, and Annie's Publishing) in the last couple of years. I love all these magazines!!! Anyway, the editor that I have been working with on F&P, I'm assuming, likes my work. She contacted me and asked if I would have time to piece a quilt for Quilty magazine. Quilty is Mary Fons' baby, she is Marianne Fons' daughter. I said, "sure!" The first quilt I pieced for them was a flannel brick quilt, sorry I forgot to take pictures...oops!! Then about a month later I heard from the editor again and she asked if I would have time to piece a couple more for them, they were not big quilts. I would love to! So fabric arrived and templates for the drunkards path. BUT, not in a timely manner. LOL There were for some reason issues with the fabric manufacturer getting fabric too me!! This is not good!! When you have deadlines, you need these things....fabric...asap!! Deadlines were approaching!! Especially when this is a last minute filler!! no fabric!! I had templates! but no fabric! SO!!! The editor and I kept in good contact, I'm feel pretty certain she was "hot on the trail" of figuring out what was going on and where was the fabric. Finally all arrived and I began working!
Guess what? I had never pieced a curved seam!!! Never made a drunkard's path quilt before....hahaha, don't tell the editor please!!! LOL I made up a few mock blocks to practice and away I went! I have determination that can really get me into trouble! LOL But! I finished this quilt. And you know what? The entire time I was working on it I had this great feeling.
So, there were other issues that came up with working on this quilt. I had a HUGE advanced level quilt that I was piecing for another magazine. I can't tell you why, but the deadlines for this quilt was moved up by 2 weeks!! This was a paper pieced quilt....you don't paper piece quickly....let alone quilt and bind quickly when it is going into a magazine. The pressure was on!! And I mean the pressure was on!!! I contacted both editors and they worked with me on deadlines!! Thank you!!! I can't show you this quilt because it will not be out until the later part of this year.
So here are some more pics of the drunkard's path quilt, I fell in love with!! I'm also teaching this at the Village Quilt Shoppe pretty soon. This quilt is also going to be used for a demo with a national teacher on QNN. How cool is that?!!!

love love love!!

white fabric, white thread

Soooo Cool!!!

This is the back of the quilt, all the white thread is from the white pieces on the front of the fabric. I used 2 threads with this quilt, black thread for all the black pieces and white thread for the white pieces. The backing of the quilt was solid black fabric!! Look how awesome my drawings turned out!!!

Here is a pic of the front, this is a black unit with black thread.

All of this quilting is all free drawing (no computer) that I do!!! I sooooo love drawing my quilting machine!!
I have to confess, when you look at the front of the quilt you have no idea what to expect when you turn the quilt over and look at the back. I remember when I took this quilt off the longarm machine, I was just standing there checking out all my work on the front of the quilt and thinking, "wow this was a lot of work, I hope they like it."

Then I TURNED THE QUILT OVER AND SCREAMED!!!! 

I MEAN IT! 

I SCREAMED!! I GOT TEARS IN MY EYES, THE QUILTING WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!!! 

I SHOCKED MYSELF!

So, my quilt is up for cover on Quilty magazine. I don't know if you can still vote for it or not, if the voting is still open as of today (January 18, 2013) you can go to Quilty on Facebook, "like"  Quilty and find the quilt. I do hope I make the cover, but if not, the journey was worth it!!!

Happy Sewing everyone!!!

Thank you Guestbook...

I have been avoiding this post.  Just brings back too much sadness and pain.

Remember this post, about our brother in law's sudden death? This has been a truly tragic experience for us and especially for his our sister and their 10 children. 

Ann from Guestbook quickly provided us with this wonderful customized Guestbook for the funeral.

The best thing about this book is the pages for people to fill out. There are prompting questions guests can answer and it's so great to read later. To learn things about your loved one you wouldn't know otherwise.  Also a way for the kids to know their dad, their youngest child is only 4.

This page from his 6 year old daughter just made me tear up. It says "How did you know Greg?" She answers "He was my Dad." Then it took us a bit to read what her favorite memory was, "feeding ducks with him." Heartbreaking. 

This was a sweet one from my 9 year old daughter.  She said her favorite memory was when she spent the night one weekend. Greg asked her what her favorite food was. She answered steak. Greg went out and bought steaks to make for everyone because it was her favorite meal. I had never heard that sweet story about him.  

I also loved that almost all the children colored pictures.  

This is truly a treasure. Thank you Ann and Guestbook for providing this family such a gift. 

Also, if you are able, these accounts are still open for donations for the family.

America First Credit Union

Greg Domgaard Memorial Fund
Acct: 9055609

via Paypal.com
GregDomgaardMemorial@gmail.com

Fabric Tuesday!

Hello folks! I have been  crafting myself this week, almost finished with Meg's Christmas gift. We gave eachother til March first, so I am way ahead of the game. I should be able to share it with you in a week or so. We truly love all the links you all share each week. They make us happy! I love being able to share projects with each other. It is fun to see all you do, and lets be honest, we all love hearing people loving on our projects right? These are just a few projects that impressed me last week...Thanks for the submissions!

Darling Clam shell pillow from Not so Plain Jane. Love the Hedgehog too :)

Barn raising quilt from Busy Hands Quilts, just shut up right now!!! LOVE

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Because I am jealous in awe, beautiful hand appliqued quilt block. I have my first applique quilt block in a box unfinished in my craft room. From 2 years ago!

This modern Nest quilt top from A quilting jewel, fun and modern!

Edited to add:

Congrats to our winner of the e-book giveaway of Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe:

 Alexis said...

I really like your quilt pattern! I heart rainbows. The others are great too.

I'm terrible with words, but modern quilting means using non-traditional patterns and colors/fabrics. (i.e. Not your grandma's quilt stuff - no bear claws or baskets, etc.)

Thanks for the chance to win.

January 22, 2013 at 10:43 PM

 

For those of you visiting welcome!!  Tuesday's at Quilt Story is

Fabric Tuesday

We share our recent fabric projects. Please look around and link up projects of your own!

Asterisks quilt, progress and finish...

Munchkin Quilts submitted this sweet Asterisks quilt, isn't is sweet? I love the blue and green lately. The bright blue and green! I also love the offset blocks, super fun! Just love this quilt, and the photos. Here are some more of Munchkin Quilts finishes, lovely.  Also here are a few block tutorials, handy! Be sure to visit Munchkin Quilts...


This is a big deal that I've ironed ALL the seams open. The blocks are so pretty. There are 15 that are the prints with white asterisk lines, and there are currently 5 that are white with the turquoise/pear dots. There will soon enough be another 10 that are in the plaid and big dots as seen below. All of these will be set on wonky point with whatever the asterisk lines are - either white for the print blocks or the respective prints for the white blocks.

 Can I repeat: SO MUCH IRONING!!!

 Oooh, pretty, the inverse blocks from each other. 

Oooh, look, all three prints from a coordinating line. 

I have now squared up all the Asterisk blocks. They are currently 8", and then once I set them on point, the blocks will be around 12". In other news, I also acquired an actual coffee table which will also be my cutting surface, it's perfect height to my couch for that and it's 30" square so it's got a nice amount of space. Previously my "coffee table" was a storage tub with a non-flat lid. It was finally starting to bother me, so a field trip to Ikea and $30 later, I've got an actual coffee table. What's great is it has a shelf under, and I can store quilt blocks in progress there, my cutting mat, rulers, etc. In an apartment that's only 284 sq. ft, every little bit of storage is key!

That is 30 blocks right there, and all the trimmings plus a small glimpse at the new table. I'm pretty pleased with how the blocks are right now. Since the rowing season ends after this weekend's trip to Philadelphia, I'll have quite a bit more time to dedicate to this and other projects that are crying out (3 baby quilts for two friends who are expecting - one of those friends has twins on the way). 

Bennet's Quilt from Stitch Fancy

Super sweet nursery quilt finish today by Tara from Stitch Fancy.  A darling quilt for her sweet baby boy!  It's no secret I love this fabric line, Backyard Baby, I'm about to have a quilt finish of my own!  I love her take on it, her pattern choice and the sneak peeks of the nursery!  Stitch Fancy is a fun blog to visit, home decor, baking, quilting, she does it all :)  Thanks for sharing!

I’ve had this quilt finished for a few months now but haven’t gotten around to taking pictures of it.  It matches the other bedding I’ve already posted about here.  Once his room is finished, I’ll post more pictures of everything all together.   My husband is sanding the wood floor in the baby room as I type, and it looks like we should have the floor finished within a couple of days.  That’s the last major step, so once the finish cures for a day or two, we should be able to start moving furniture in, hanging curtains and pictures, etc.  It will definitely be nice to have things more together than they have been.  We’re really cutting it close on this one—my due date is two days away.  However, with my luck, the baby will go late (ugh), and we’ll have things ready and waiting.  At this point, I don’t even care what’s finished and what’s not.  I just want this baby OUT!

Onto the quilt—I chose a chain-link type pattern.  There are several patterns for sale, and the one that I followed most closely for mine was from Cluck Cluck Sew and can be found here.  I did not buy the pattern because I wanted to make several changes to it for size and visual reasons, so I thought it would kind of be pointless since I wouldn’t be following the actual pattern anyway.  I first saw this type of design in a very different quilt on flickr, which led to some googling, and this quilt was born.

For the back, I had hoped to be able to make it work with just one width of fabric across the quilt, but it turned out to not be quite enough, so I added the polka dot scrap strips down the middles.  I like the look, though, so it probably worked out for the best anyway.

For the quilting, I again went out of my stippling comfort zone and did right angles intersecting each other in box shapes.  I thought this mimicked the quilt top better, and I’m very happy with how they turned out.  However, since I don’t have the skill to do right angles (and keep them straight!) with the free motion foot, I had to use the walking foot, which involved LOTS of turning, which was soooo not fun.  However, I’m happy I suffered through it because I love the end result.  Maybe one day I’ll be good enough to do that with the free motion foot, which would make things a lot easier.

I bound the quilt in a gray matching print, and I haven’t added the label yet.  I think I’d like to make one with his name and birth information on it, so I’ll just sew that on later.

PS I saw this on her sidebar and had to add the photo!! Congratulations!

Fabric Tuesday and Published!

I'm very excited and honored about today's post!!  I (Megan) had the opportunity to be a contributor in Martingale's new book Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe.  It was such a fabulous experience!!!

There are so many amazing designers in this book I was humbled to be asked to participate.  So many that I look up to!  One of my favorite things about this book is that they left it up to each designer to interpret modern quilting.  Some really fun and unique quilt designs.

That is mine...yay!  I haven't seen this quilt in a while, it will be fun to get it back :) Here are a couple more of my favorites.

You can check the whole book out here.  

Martingale is offering an e-book giveaway!!  

Hooray!  Please leave a comment telling me what "modern quilting" means to you! 

Each designer is offering the giveaway today so please stop by their blogs to enter as well!  Found here.

This giveaway is now CLOSED

*********************************************************************

For those of you visiting welcome!!  Tuesday's at Quilt Story is

Fabric Tuesday

We share our recent fabric projects. Please look around and link up projects of your own!

Valentine canvas tutorial, scrap buster...

Hello. Today I am going to show you a simple Valentine canvas tutorial. This project takes about 1 and a  half hours (with 3 littles), uses up fabric scraps, and costs around $5. Easy, cheap, adorable!

I will start by saying this would be really easy with paper and a punch, but I didn't have either. Plus I really like my fabric scrap selection.

  

All you need is a 16 x 20 canvas. I got mine from Walmart, 2 pack for $10. You could probably do better at Hobby Lobby with a coupon.  You will need scraps, craft paint, mod podge and a brush.

I didn't include a template, but my heart is around 3" high, and 3" wide. I just piled a bunch of scraps together and cut around my template. I probably did to many scraps, because I had to clean the edges up a bit. But I didn't care if the hearts were not all the exact same size. They appear to be, that's all that mattered to me. 

First paint your canvas. I did more of a wash. Equal parts water and paint. I spread it around with a rag.  After it is dry, lay your hearts in place.

One row at a time, lift the hearts, spread mod podge, place hearts back and "glue" them down. Push tight if you didn't iron first (like me) Then once they are in place and look nice, spread mod podge on top.  

 Do this to all the rows. Push out any air bubbles (easy do do with fabric) Make sure your edges don't lift either. 

Let it dry and hang or prop wherever you like! 

 Finished and cute! Hope you like!